Jane Lane was alone.
Trent had gone off to another gig. It was 3:20 am. Daria was asleep. School would start in just a few hours.
A small sheet of plexiglass Jane bought that morning from the art supply store rested on two pedestals made of paperback books. Jane ran her fingers over the undersurface of the plastic sheet. Above, the collection of iron filings danced, stood on end, and mirrored the movements of Jane's fingers in strange and beautiful ways. She had spent hours making art, this incredible art, with merely the fingertips of her hands. Jane wondered what she could do with some colored iron filings. Ms. Defoe might know the answer to that question.
It explained just about everything that had happened...the loss of her hard drive, Trent's ruined speakers, and all other kinds of weird phenomena. Jane knew that from now on she would have to take more of a notice of the world around her and not be so lost in her own thoughts.
As for putting this power to some use, she had some large ball bearings from another art project. She could make them rise, fall, jump. She found that she could "aim" this power like Quinn aimed her powers over electricity, but when she was hit in the face with an aluminum can, she knew that she would have to gain better control over it.
Evenings at the quarry with Quinn Morgendorffer. Wonderful. At least Daria would be there.
Poor Daria. If someone gave Quinn any trouble, they would be roasted like a fried chicken, and Jane could chuck a pocket full of ball bearings at them, but Daria was wide open to the world.
Daria can you hear me right now? if you can hear me answer me. I'm at home right now.
Nothing. Jane figured that she might as well tried to levitate Jake's Lexus from her bedroom window as to have Daria hear her from this distance.
Jane thought that if she did have amazing powers like the Morgendorffer Sisters, then she wouldn't feel isolated like when Daria and Quinn were thinking nasty thoughts at each other. Instead, she was amazed by her magnetic powers, then amused, then...puzzled. Instead of answering one question, Jane found herself asking several more.
The computer was gone. Everything metal was gone out of her room, down to the basement. She wondered if she attracted objects in her sleep. She wondered if some piece of random sharp scrap metal wouldn't slam her in the face and rip her head off. She wondered if she'd walk past some iron fence and suddenly find herself trapped there, like a fly to flypaper.
All sorts of terrifying scenarios suddenly began racing through her head. Guns going off as she walked by. Her arm attracted to the metal gears of a sink's trash compactor. Each one worse than the next.
She resolved to sleep. And sleep came, but only in fits.
(la la LA la la)
"So Jane", said Jodie, "when will Daria be back to school?"
probably never "Well, the doctors are still running tests. I think. Daria just sort of mutters under her breath when we talk about it."
"Well," said Jodie. "Let her know that we're thinking of her, okay? I sent a card."
"Yeah, she got it. And the card from Brittany, too. That was a surprise. So if you see Brittany, tell her thanks." and don't add the part about Daria ripping on that cutesy card
"No problem. Jane...are you okay?"
sure, why not? "Yeah, I'm holding up. I talk to Daria all the time. Everything's copacetic."
"Cool. Well, my lunch break is over. I have to get back to class. See you in Mr. DeMartino's, okay?"
Jane watched Jodie walk out. Everything was most definitely not okay. Jane had been watching the movement of almost every metal object that she walked by. She had begun to develop a fear of lockers. Innocent lockers that had never done anything to her before. Jane imagined a thousand metal objects, scissors, knives, compasses, leaping suddenly from the open doors of a hundred lockers and stabbing her to death.
Stifling a yawn, Jane played with the garlic mashed potatoes on her plate. There was a high pitched squeal of laughter from the popular kids' table.
"So Yolanda, Yolanda mind you, she comes up to me and she asks, 'Quinn, how much money would it take me to look better!' Money! As if money could just buy good looks and if just being fashionable was something for rich people! Clewwww-less!! She just doesn't get it!"
"If there's anything I can't stand", said Sandi, "it's these dumb poseurs thinking that a platinum card at Cashman's can solve all their problems! They look like a 50 percent sale rack!" The hangers on all chuckled.
"Of course, being really cute has a lot to do with genetics! But these girls just don't take care of themselves! I should have said, 'Yolanda, you want to look nicer? Get rid of those overalls! They make your butt look giii-gantic!!"
The Fashion Club members and their female hangers on, Brooke, Heidi, and the rest of the herd laughed madly at Yolanda's misfortune. Jane was sure that Quinn was having no problems with her new abilities. Because you'd have to have a brain first for it to bother you. Quinn probably slept wonderfully at night. Quinn's prowess was a gift from God to Quinn for being so cute and wonderful.
"Gee Quinn," sniffed Sandi, "I hope that you're not doling out fashion advice to the clearly unfashionable like Yolanda. As it says in the Fashion Club By-Laws, 'some people can't be helped'. I certainly hope that you are not out to sabotage the Fashion Club by elevating the clueless with your useful command of the fashion basics. It would make us look very bad!" Sandi's lower mouth turned into a straight line.
Quinn turned red for a split second, then shifted into automatic gear. "Oh, Sandi! I would never make someone over without your approval!!" Quinn smiled her 100 watt smile. Sandi appeared to be mollified, and gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head. There was a split second of silence, then one of the freshmen asked a low ball fashion question for Sandi to confidently knock out of the park.
Jane returned to her potatoes, disgusted. She didn't know if she could deal with Quinn. Hell, Daria's duplicitous little sister couldn't even be trusted. Good looking and completely insincere, a sharper version of Tiffany.
It was then that the most terrifying thought of all crossed Jane's mind. And with that, Jane lost her appetite.
(la la LA la la)
Daria sat on her bed. Jane finished up her conversation.
"I know that you can keep a secret. You know that I can keep a secret. And we're both pretty good at keeping secrets to ourselves. Not Quinn. The first time Sandi Griffin grills her, she'll tell the Fashion Club everything."
"Or our parents anything, if Mom suspects anything. Or...damn. She'd probably tell everyone at school if she thought it would make her even more popular."
"And if the world knows about Quinn..."
"..then they know about us, too." Daria sighed. "Great. One more thing to worry about."
Jane squirmed. "Uh...I've been thinking about that, myself."
"I'm sorry, but it's too late to abort Quinn."
"No. The bad part is that if Quinn tried something like that, it would probably blow up in her face."
Daria nodded. Daria believed than Quinn and responsibility were foreign concepts. "So what's your secret master plan?"
"We might have to get out of here. We might have to leave."
Daria's face betrayed nothing. Jane could then hear a slow exhalation of air, like a tire leaking. "Where to?"
"I don't know. Hit the road. Ride boxcars, something."
"Get molested."
"I think I can take care of myself," said Jane.
"And me too?" Daria looked offended.
"All right. We'll get jobs. We'll be entertainers, like in the Spider-Man movie!"
"That might work. But we're also minors. And when Mom sees us on TV, we'll all be sent packing to Guantanamo."
"Okay," said Jane. "A life on the run! Like Harrison Ford!"
"Let's hope not." Daria thought. "Quinn. Quinn has a fake ID. Therefore, we need fake ID's. Phony driver's licenses to slow down any inquiries. At least, until we get settled."
Jane was happy that Daria had settled on something and was being less disagreeable. She let Daria confidently discuss how easy it would be to get these IDs and what they could do with them. Jane smiled. She worried she was just being like Quinn, smilling to get what she wanted.
(la la LA la la)
Daria, Jane, and Quinn had made the quarry their home away from home. Quinn was determined that if it were a home away from home, it would be clean, and she made Daria and Jane bring trashbags with them to pick up litter. If Quinn got her hands dirty, then everyone would get their hands dirty.
After fifteen minutes of cleaning up beer cans, paper, and other assorted garbage, Daria and Quinn opened their backpacks. They were jammed with staplers, small statues, hole punchers, every metal object they could carry without breaking their backs.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" said Daria.
"Well...as ready as I'm going to be," said Jane.
Quinn smiled. Daria pulled out a hole punch.
"Think fast!!" Daria hurled the hole punch at Jane's torso, hoping not to hit her in the face with it by mistake.
She missed by twenty feet. It didn't matter. Jane extended her arm, and the hole punch remained suspended in mid air, then dropped to the floor of the rock canyon.
"I hope you have better aim, Quinn!"
"Watch!!" Quinn threw an old clock at Jane, with an analog dial and two large bells. Quinn's aim was better, but the clock could only get within four feet of Jane before Jane stopped it. The clock slowed down in mid-path, and Jane let it drop.
"Yeahh!!" The other two continued to throw random objects at Jane, with Jane blocking anything she could see with ease. Jane felt she was getting better.
Quinn whispered to Daria. "Let's she how Jane does if we try more than one object!!"
"O...kay," whispered Daria. Better to know now than later.
The sisters threw two objects at once. Jane had to focus on each object separately, but smiled as she could stop the objects. "Is that all you've got, ladies?!" she shouted, doing her best impression of Ms. Morris.
Daria and Quinn laughed. Forgetting themselves, they began throwing things as fast as they possibly could.
"HEY!!" shouted Jane, almost pelted with a stapler stopped only six inches away from her head as she was able to repel it. She crouched, instinctively, and tried to repel anything metal thrown at her without seeing it.
It worked. Metal objects were flying away once they reached an invisible line of force six inches away from her.
Jane extended the aura and stood up. Two feet. Three feet. She got up to four feet before she felt it weaken. Daria and Quinn were exasperated. There was no point in continuing. Nothing metal was going to touch Jane if she didn't want it to.
"This was a great idea!!" Jane was feeling very giddy. "Nothing can stop me now! Had enough, ladies?" Jane playfully picked up a stapler with her powers, threatening to throw it at either Daria or Quinn.
Quinn crouched down and aimed her own power. A blue bolt of electricity not only fried the stapler, it crawled up the magnetic field surrounding Jane's body. Jane was covered in a spray of blue arcs which turned all sorts of colors as the electricity swirled around the magnetic field. Dizzy, Jane fell backwards.
"Jane!!" Daria ran over to her fallen friend. "Jane!!"
Jane turned over and smiled. "I don't think I even felt that. That much, anyway." Jane felt part of Quinn's bolt -- it was clearly a shock -- but not all of it, not enough to incinerate her. It was something worth knowing. Perhaps, at full magnetic force, Jane could protect herself from Quinn if that had to happen. "Don't freak out, Daria. We were just playing!"
"Jane, Jane, I swear to God I didn't know that was going to happen!!" Quinn looked really upset.
"Eh, don't worry your pointed head about it." Jane smiled. Quinn, switching emotions instantly, stuck out her tongue.
"Hey Quinn," said Daria, "do you still have your fake ID?"
"Yeah, sure." Quinn needed it to go bar hopping.
"Care if we take a look at it?"
(la la LA la la)
Daria and Jane looked at their prizes.
"I can't believe that Quinn paid five hundred dollars for these." Jane looked at her Lawndale Driver's License, certifiying before God and all the powers of the earth that she was twenty-one. "Where the hell did Quinn get five hundred dollars?"
Daria looked carefully. "You can even make out the hologram. I think it was worth it. Although...that's the end of my Montana cabin money."
"Uh...I'm sorry I only had one hundred dollars."
"Consider that twenty years worth of birthday presents, Lane. The good news is that we have some documentation. The bad news is that we have no money if we needed to go somewhere."
The fact was, neither Daria nor Jane could decide upon any kind of plan. Every scenario had been floated by and was picked apart by Daria or Jane. Both were extremely tenative. They knew they might need to escape Lawndale someday, but dreaded the prospect so much that they found it impossible to commit to a true plan.
The girls agreed that they would think some more about it tomorrow. They figured they had a month at the least.
(la la LA la la)
It was 11 pm. Bedtime. Quinn, in her pajamas, was dosing off to sleep.
The door opened from the hallway. "Quinn?"
It was Mom.
"Uh...Mom...what?"
"I need to talk to you."
FEAR.
"Can it wait?"
"I'm afraid not. It's very important."
Quinn walked down the stairs in her pajamas and pajama top. Helen was in her nightgown and Jake was in his pajamas. They were sitting in the living room.
"Uh..."
"It's a family meeting, Quinn. And Daria is to stay asleep."
(la la LA la la)
Helen had laid out the case before Quinn, patiently, legally, the ultimate combination of mother and lawyer.
"The neurologists have not been able to find anything wrong with Daria. However...one of the interns mentioned a diagnosis that he said we'd have to consider sooner or later. I was furious when I heard it first. But now...it seems to make a lot more sense.
"When Daria broke down for the first time, she said that she was hearing voices in her head. And Quinn, I didn't want to tell you this because I thought it would scare you...but the nursing staff at the hospital said that Daria had mentioned voices when she was first admitted. She had to be sedated to get her to sleep.
"Daria has always been socially withdrawn. We both know that she's great at manipulating people to do what she wants them to. And now she spends more and more of her time alone in her bedroom!"
"But Jane and I take Daria out all the time!"
"I know, Quinn. And you've been wonderful for thinking of your sister. Has she mentioned hearing the voices...to you?"
"No." Quinn didn't like where this was going. Quinn knew that it was smart of Mom to ask her because Jane would have never admitted the truth. Quinn now felt small and weak.
"Still..the doctors..." Helen almost hated saying the word. Jake looked away, ashamed, as if he had done something wrong.
"We have to rule out...schizophrenia. Mental illness. Daria might have a serious problem. Many people with schizophrenia report hearing the voices for the first time when they're teenagers. I don't want Daria to hurt herself. I want to see that Daria gets better!"
Quinn knew her Mom was trying to convince herself. "But Mom! Daria's not crazy! She's just...geeky!!"
"I don't want you using that word, Quinn! 'Crazy'. I know Daria hasn't been taking what the doctors have given her for her migraines. I know that Daria is going to resist any type of treatment. She'll react the same way that you're reacting right now, Quinn. You have that luxury. I'm her mother. I don't have that luxury."
Helen straightened her spine. "Tomorrow, we'll be taking Daria to Shady Acres for treatment."
THE CRAZY HOUSE. "You can't!"
"Quinn...if there's nothing wrong, Daria will be back home in two or three months. She'll be furious. But she'll be back home, and we'll know one way or the other if schizophrenia is a possibilty.
"This is going to happen, Quinn, and I want you to be prepared for it. Tomorrow, you are going to get up and go to school. Jake and I are going to stay home. I don't know what excuse we'll make to get Daria in the car, but I've already found a doctor who has agreed to treat Daria."
Helen sighed. "Do you think this is easy for me, Quinn? Do you?"
"I...!"
"They'll do a battery of tests on her. I'll be there every day that I can. You will, too, Quinn. This is not a condemnation of your sister. You have to understand that. But I can't let things go on the way they've been going."
"Quinn, honey!" said Jake, sweetly. "Daria's going to be okay!"
"Yes. Daria is going to be okay and all of us are going to pitch in. I just want you to know, sweetie, that...you might not be seeing your sister for a little while."
(la la LA la la)
THE CRAZY HOUSE. The crazy house. The crazy house.
They are taking Daria to THE CRAZY HOUSE. Quinn shuddered in her bed, unable to sleep. Quinn knew that Daria would never come out the same. Having to hear a bunch of crazy people talking in your head all day would drive you crazy. Quinn knew she wouldn't be able to take it, which meant that Daria, of course, was doomed.
If Daria escapes...that was it. She would tell Daria and Daria would have a chance to get out of the house.
But Helen and Jake would know who tipped off Daria.
And Quinn would be in a world of trouble. They'd come after Jane, too.
No. Quinn was not going to let it happen. She hated Daria, but Daria was also her sister. Daria would blame Quinn for the rest of her life if she thought that Quinn was in on it.
Quinn stood up. She wondered if Helen and Jake were asleep, or if they would hear the bathroom door of the Jack and Jill unit slide open.
It was one AM.
"Daria...Daria...wake up...!"
"Mmmff?"
"It's me!"
"mmmff."
"Daria...!"
"I'm awake, I'm awake. What's going on?"
Quinn told her.